PUBLISH & SUBSCRIBE DATA PROCESSING WITH ABILITY TO SPECIFY A LOCAL PUBLICATION/SUBSCRIPTION

A publishing data processing method for use in a publish/subscribe data processing broker network having a plurality of broker data processing apparatuses each of which has an input for receiving published messages directly from a publisher application and/or receiving subscription data directly from a subscriber application, the method includes steps of: Publishing a message on a topic to a first broker data processing apparatus; and providing an indication as to whether the published data message is to be considered as local to the first broker apparatus. Also included are an analogous subscribing data processing method, an analogous broker data processing method, apparatuses and computer program products.